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Jacques-André Naigeon (July 15 1738, Paris - 28 February 1810, Paris)
was a French
artist, atheist philosopher, editor and man of letters best known for his
contributions to the Encyclopédie and for reworking Baron
d'Holbach's and Diderot's manuscripts.
Life and
works
After trying his hand at painting and sculpture, Naigeon became
a friend and associate of Denis Diderot, whom he helped to work on
the Encyclopédie. He soon became involved with the Coterie Holbachique, a group of
radical French
Enlightenment thinkers centered around the Paris salon of Baron
d'Holbach. Naigeon quickly adopted the Baron's atheist
principles and collaborated with him on his works, overseeing their
clandestine printing in Amsterdam and editing d'Holbach's Morale
Universelle and his Essai sur les préjugés. Priding
himself on a through knowledge of the classics, Naigeon would also
edit a French translation of the works of Seneca
begun by Nicolas La Grange, publishing it
along with Diderot's Essai sur les régnes de Claude et de
Néron (Paris, 1778). Other editorial work included the Essays
of Montaigne, and a translation of Toland’s philosophical
letters
Naigeon is best-known for editing the works of the famous
encyclopédiste Denis Diderot
Naigeon became the editor, compiler, and commentator of
Diderot's works after the latter made him his literary executor. He
published an incomplete edition of Diderot's works in 1798 after
writing Mémoires historiques et philosophiques sur la vie et
les ouvrages de Diderot, an unfinished commentary on his life
and works.
Naigeon's only original stand-alone work was Le militaire
philosophe, ou Difficultés sur la religion, proposées au Pére
Malebranche (London and Amsterdam, 1768) which was based on an
earlier anonymous manuscript, and whose final chapter was written
by d'Holbach. This work mostly repeated the
atheist, anti-Christian, determinist materialist arguments
found in the radical literature of the second half of the 18th
century.
Naigeon continued his attacks on religion in his Dictionary of
Ancient and Modern Philosophy in the Encyclopédie
méthodique (1791–1794). In his address to the National Assembly
in 1790 (Adresse à l'Assemblée
nationale sur la liberté des opinions) he called for
absolute freedom of the press, asking the Assembly to withhold the
name of God and religion from their declaration of the rights of
man.
Bibliography
Naigeon's
works
- Les Chinois, a comedy writtern with Charles
Simon Favart (1756)
- Le Militaire philosophe ou, Difficultés sur la religion
proposées au R.P. Malebranche (London and Amsterdam,
1768) ;
- Éloge de La Fontaine (1775)
- Adresse à l'Assemblée
nationale sur la liberté des opinions (1790)
- Dictionnaire de philosophie ancienne et moderne 3 vol.
(1791-1794)
- Mémoire sur la vie et les œuvres de Diderot
(1821)
Secondary
literature
- Alan Charles Kors, "The Atheism of D'Holbach and Naigeon,"
Atheism from the Reformation to the Enlightenment (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1992)
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